I'm a 27 year old male in pretty good shape who has raced motocross for 16 year. It's a pretty physical sport and my Achilles heel is my grip gives in well before the rest of my body when racing by getting arm pump in my forearms!!!

I've tried rock climbing and the forearm pump is pretty similar to what happens when I race and loose grip.

What kind of forearm training teqniques do you guys recommend for this? As I believe forearm conditioning for climbing would help me hold onto my bike for longer. There's lots of info about finger strength on here but not much focusing on forearms.

I'm a 27 year old male in pretty good shape who has raced motocross for 16 year. It's a pretty physical sport and my Achilles heel is my grip gives in well before the rest of my body when racing by getting arm pump in my forearms!!!

I've tried rock climbing and the forearm pump is pretty similar to what happens when I race and loose grip.

What kind of forearm training teqniques do you guys recommend for this? As I believe forearm conditioning for climbing would help me hold onto my bike for longer. There's lots of info about finger strength on here but not much focusing on forearms.

Any info or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

There are lots of ways to improve forearm strength, but for climbers one of the best ways to avoid that pump in the forearms is to use balance, legs, and the body's core to take the strain off of the forearms. In other words, a climber's solution is probably not to improve forearm strength, but to improve climbing technique instead. That's why you won't find a lot on here about improving forearm strength.

Finger strength, while also debated as important or not, is a bit of a different creature because one actually holds the rock with fingers (i.e. - they serve a more direct function than forearms do).

I was a pretty average MX expert but (Euro) championship class enduro rider. You want to be careful about improving forearm strength, plenty of motocrossers have the problem that the muscles reduce the blood supply and trap the nerves in the wrists as well. I know a few from my career that have had surgury because of this and none of them where as good again. If your losing your grip then it isnīt pump, itīs the other way round. Your gripīs going as you are holding on too hard, as the gripweakens you try to hold on harder and make things worse, same with climbing. Try to learn to ride in a neater, less physical style and let the bike work under you, fighting it is hopeless. If you want to know about REAL loss of grip then passenger on a MX sidecar, the average expert graded MXīr canīt last 2 laps, the trick is to let the bike float under you.

I actually had a fasciotomy done (arm pump operation) when I was younger to help blood circulation in my forearm to improve grip but hasn't helped at all.

I've tried every motocross technique you can think of with regards to riding style, bike set up and training. But the frustration of my lap times fading fast as the race goes on due to grip is still there!